Hosts: Martin Canchola and Ronn Ruiz of ApartmentSEO.com 

Guests: Leon Grundstein, Founder and CEO and Danielle Parker, COO at GenCareLifestyle.com

Martin: Welcome to the Multifamily Podcast powered by ApartmentSEO.com. I’m Martin, joined by my co-host, Ronn, and today we are thrilled to explore an innovative and inspiring approach to senior living with our special guest, Leon Grunstein, founder and CEO, and Danielle Parker, COO of GenCare Lifestyle. GenCare is redefining senior living with their Whole Life Living program. Which integrates wellness, community, and purpose into every aspect of their residents’ lives. Leon and Danielle, welcome to the Multifamily Podcast. 

Leon: Yeah, good morning.  

Ronn: Good morning. We’re so excited to have you both here. And I personally am looking forward to hearing more about GenCare and how it’s leading the way to create vibrant and engaging communities for our aging population, our seniors.  

Danielle: Good morning, Ronn and Martin. Thanks so much for having us on today. We’re really excited to be here. 

Martin: Yeah, thank you for joining for sure. We’re excited for this conversation.  So, Leon, your journey into senior living is quite unique coming from a real estate development background. Can you tell us more about how that transition happened and what initially drew you into this field? 

Leon: Yeah, I’d be happy to do that. Many years ago, when I was doing more conventional real estate development and had a minor, you know, focus on medical office buildings and health care, I got a contract to develop a hospital campus and I was looking for uses on the campus other than medical office buildings. And in my research, I came across senior housing. This was way back in the late eighties, 1980s.  And I saw the demographics and the information on my research about senior housing and the aging of America. And I said, well, this is an opportunity, I want to investigate. So, although I didn’t put in a senior housing building on the hospital campus, I did find a site in the Seattle metropolitan area to build a retirement community, and it was the 1st one I had ever done. So, I had to hire a management company to run the operations of the building, even though I developed and built it.  So, that’s basically how I got in the industry, develop a few more buildings. So, a total of 3. And learned at the, you know, at the best of the operator that we hired to run the three buildings, how to run the business and get more familiar with it and that’s how I got into the industry.  

Ronn: That’s amazing. I definitely think that they’re obviously having a good time. Good place, good time as they say, is it, knowing that our population was going to increase with our boomer generation?  So, great foresight there. Obviously, GenCare lifestyle is based on the concept of whole life living. I can’t wait to hear more about this. But Danielle, can you break down what it actually means? What does whole life living mean? And really, how is it different from traditional senior housing models? 

Danielle: Oh, I would love to. So whole life living is really at the center and the heart of everything that GenCare does. It’s where we’re taking a holistic approach to active adult and senior care. And really looking at the whole person, you know, mind, body and spirit. And it’s different from traditional senior housing models or senior living models because we’re taking a preventative and proactive approach to wellness versus a reactive approach to maybe challenging needs or crisis situations and making residents lives healthier and happier longer.  

Ronn: That’s exactly it. Yeah, we’re living longer these days, right? 

Danielle: That’s right. 

Ronn: We gotta make it a good quality of life.  And it’s called super aging. So, we all want to be a super ager, right? 

Danielle: Absolutely. We say it’s not about the adding, you know, years to someone’s life. It’s more about adding life to their years and really embracing the whole person.

Ronn: I like that. Yeah, that is awesome. 

Martin: You guys got any pickleball courts going on at any of these?  

Leon: Yeah, we do. We have a pickleball court in one of our buildings in Seattle because the weather is kind of dicey a lot of the year. You can’t do it outdoors all the time. So, we converted a space in one of our buildings that was a theater, which wasn’t being used very much into a sport court, which among other things you can play pickleball on.

Martin: Yeah, that’s right there. 

Leon: Yeah. So, we’re on it. 

Martin: Yeah, I love it because we have a lot of our friends. A lot of the team members here at apartment SEO are very into pickleball. And, you know, when I got in touch with that community, you know, it’s old, young, big, small, it doesn’t matter. They’re all shapes and sizes when you’re playing pickleball. All right. So, you structured GenCare around the four wellness pillars, eat better, feel better, think better, and live better. How did you develop these pillars and why are they central to the GenCare experience? 

Leon: Well, in their philosophy of live longer, better.  When I was developing the concept, it’s first food. We know that food is the fuel that drives the engine. So, if we’re eating healthy food, with not a lot of preservatives and sugar and junk in it, you’re going to, your heart’s going to work better. You’re not going to have, you know, carbohydrate rushes and crashes through the sugar conversion. You’re going to be able to manage diabetes, you’re going to be able to manage your weight. You’re going to be able to sleep better and you’ll feel better just because you have better fuel and your heart’s going to work better. And so that was the first concept. And the second pillar was exercise. If you’re eating better, you got more energy and you got good fuel in your engine. You’re going to want to exercise in order to keep your body strong. And so, we all know that exercise is, once again, managed as weight. It can manage diabetes; it helps combat cancer. You’re going to sleep better. You’re going to be stronger and be able to do stuff longer. Your heart’s going to, once again, work better. And you’re going to get, you’re going to feel a lot better. And because you’re getting more blood circulating throughout your body and your brain, you’re going to be able to think better. And when you think better, you can do activities that give you satisfaction in doing some work or play, and you’re able to engage much better with your community and in your life. And then finally, if you’re thinking better, because you’re eating well and exercising, doesn’t matter what age you are. The fourth pillar is purpose. And we all want some purpose in our lives. So, we have a lot of purpose-based activities, which center around maybe intergenerational work, community work. We have one group that’s doing a project in our building, refinishing some outdoor furniture that we have. The men’s group just decided to do it. We worked with the Jamie Moyer Foundation, who was a retired now, a retired major league pitcher, who’s through for the Seattle Mariners, and he had a youth foundation for kids who’s lost a parent or loved one. So, our residents did journals or made teddy bears or security blankets to give to the kids who had lost a loved one. And that’s just a couple of examples of what they do for purpose. So that in summary is eat better, exercise because you’re eating better you have more energy because you have more energy because you’re working out and eating better, you’re thinking better. And then because you’re thinking better, the last pillar is you still want purpose in your life, and we provide that in our program. 

Ronn: That is huge, definitely. My parents are now visiting the local senior center. And I love hearing their stories, and I really see that element that they need to, you know, because I believe that they try to live better, think better, eat better, for sure. But that social element. So, I’m parlaying into my next question, which is social connections, right? I mean, obviously if you had, if everyone was living by those great principles, I think they’d be a better human to be able to be social and be amongst people they want to be and not, you know, be frustrated or angry or lonely. So social connections are obviously a key part of what GenCare is trying to do here. And Danielle, I really want to know how, if you could share some specific ways, how GenCare fosters those social interactions, like bringing the people out and having a sense of belonging among the residents.  

Danielle: You know, I think humans are, we’re social creatures. We need to be around people and we want to be around people that we like and share similar interests. And I think building on the facets like Leon mentioned, it’s really about first listening to what your residents want. Every, you know, we have we have our founding principles. We have our four facets, which are truly, you know, at the center of everything we do and help us thoughtfully design our programs and our offerings for our residents. But it’s also finding out what makes this group thick, you know, every community is in a different neighborhood in the Pacific Northwest here, and they have different likes and interests and hobbies and so it’s listening to the residents and as their needs change and their desires change and creating programs that hit the physical, emotional, psychosocial aspects of whole life living, but then offer them tailored programming in their community. So we have a lot of resident led programs, special interest clubs that are resident led. Yesterday, in fact, you know, it’s Thanksgiving time and we had a beautiful Thanksgiving dinner for the residents and their families at one of our communities on Wednesday night. And yesterday, the residents took leftover turkey, made turkey sandwiches, and created GenCare Cares bags for the homeless population in one of their communities and went out and donated those on our bus. And the community, you know, team helps facilitate those opportunities for them to connect and engage in activities that they want to be a part of, because that’s really what this is, is finding out what interests them and what do they want to participate in. And we try to make that happen. 

Ronn: That’s huge. I love that you guys have the resident led as well. It’s not just programs that they have to like, because I’m sure there’s opinions around that, right? You can’t make everyone happy.  

Danielle: Absolutely. Not everyone loves the food all the time, but we promise the food to be nourishing and healthy and a little bit of something for everyone.

Leon: Yeah, we kind of kind of say you never liked what your mom made you all the time. Most of the time you liked it. And you know, maybe you didn’t like meatloaf, but that’s what she had to eat that day. 

Ronn: So that was it.

Martin: I love meatloaf.

Ronn: And back then you eat what mama makes. 

Leon: But just anecdotally, we know that human beings live better and longer and more mentally fit if you’re in a social environment. Like Daniel said, humans are social animals and we live better when we’re interacting with other people. So, we encourage people not to stay at home alone and isolated. It’s better if you move into a community, you can go to your apartment and be alone if you want. But if you have that interaction ready at your fingertips to be, meet people, talk to people, make friends, you’re happier.  

Ronn: You know, the other element I see at play too, with my parents is that they, my dad is social. He golfs like multiple times a week with friends, guys. Individually they do things, but together, this is something they’re doing together. But what I found was, I think they feel younger because they’re amongst, you know, a similar population and realize like, hey, yeah, I maybe had that backache this morning, but I’m walking. I’m not, you know, having to sit down or, I don’t know, I just feel like they’re getting this new sense of purpose. And I like that element of the social interaction, you know, they’re getting.  

Leon: Yeah, I think you’re spot on with using your dad as an example. 

Ronn: Yeah.

Martin: They’re very active stuff.  

Leon: Yeah, that’s great.

Ronn: And they want to keep it that way. They don’t need to know, think that they’re old, you know, quote unquote. 

Leon: Yeah. Well, one thing we also do is we have our staff, one of the requirements is our staff have to participate in an activity with the residents. We don’t really care what it is, but if they’re playing cards or they’re playing pickleball or they’re attending a lecture, it does a couple of things. One, it creates a better bond between the staff and the resident and the residents actually like it and they participate more when they see the staff involved, because most of the staff are younger, more energetic and because they’re younger and the residents feel that, hey, if these young guys can do it and women can do it, so can I, so I guess I still got some juice.

Ronn: Yeah. That’s it. 

Danielle: And they teach each other new things both generations. They share experiences and teach each other things acro across the age spectrum, which is really neat to watch. 

Martin: Oh man, that’s really powerful. 

Ronn: Yeah. My dad at first didn’t see the opportunities there. He gets there and I guess their story was, he taught this older gentleman how to play pool, who was a different nationality. And he is like, in my country we don’t play pool. What is this? So, my dad taught him. And so, my mom, the story we heard at family dinner was see how we could still teach somebody at our age, something that we wouldn’t even think was. My dad used to be a pool shark back in the day. Like he was amazing. And he kind of got back into it and they don’t have a pool table at home, but you know, they were able to do it. So that sense of purpose is like twofold, as you mentioned. 

Leon: Yeah. You still, no matter how old you are, you still want to feel you have value. 

Ronn: Yeah, exactly. Yeah.  

Leon: Because you do.

Martin: Exactly. Yeah.

Ronn: We can learn a lot.

Martin: So, how do you ensure Gen care as wellness programs remain accessible to all residents regardless of their physical capabilities or health challenges overall?  

Leon: Well, we have because of, we have a full-time activity director and a full time come vitality directors and trainers. We get to know the residents really well. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in a wheelchair or walker or you’re fully ambulatory. We try and devise activities, both physical and you know, mental and social that meet the desires of the resident. We found and we track what every resident does every month, every day. So, we know how much they participate per week, per month, per year, and we found that about, what is it? 80, 85 to 90 percent of the residents participate in something, whether it’s one thing or multiple things. And then there seems to be about 10 percent and we can’t get to participate in anything. But the goal is to get as many people active and doing stuff as we can, and that’s a function of getting to know their likes and dislikes and their capabilities. And we tailor make some activities, particularly in the gym, depending on what they can and cannot do. Some cases we’ve improved people’s ability to walk. They come in a wheelchair and they graduate to a walker. Where they come into the building with a walker and they graduate to a cane or no appliances, We just adapt to what their needs are and some people, like you said, teach us how to play a new game and engage other residents to do it, because we found out that they like to play bridge and suddenly you have a bridge group development because there’s other people who knew how to play it or they want to learn how. And so, it’s just kind of, you know, going with the flow of the population in that building and what they’re predisposed to do. And what we also found, it seems like every 5 years, there’s a generational switch in what our residents like to do or not do. So, we have to be nimble and adapt to the proclivities and desires of this new, you know, five-year cohort that comes to the buildings. 

Danielle: I think also, sort of expanding on Leon’s, he mentioned our fitness trainers. So, they’re certified personal trainers. And they have a specialty in active adult, exercise science, exercise, medicine, food and nutrition and also geriatric wellness and exercise. So, they gather baseline fitness assessments of most of our residents when they move in. Of course, they have to opt in and want to participate in this, and many do. And they’ll gather those fitness assessments so that we can tailor-make wellness programs specific to our residents to the individual resident, whether it’s in a group class and maybe they need a seated exercise or it’s personal training and they need help with passive range of motion. We thoughtfully design and curate that program for the specific resident. And then as they get stronger or more capable or their needs change, then we can reassess and we get new data and new baseline kind of fitness data on them and then continue to tailor that wellness program and that’s how we start to capture those success stories that Leon mentioned, where someone is now walking that maybe wasn’t when they moved in. We have residents who have come in as diabetics and they’re no longer diabetic because of our programming. So, it’s very neat, a neat custom approach to wellness programming that meets everyone where they are regardless of where that is.  

Ronn: Yeah, that’s amazing. I know that you, yeah, with your background, that’s amazing that you were able to do that. Did you guys come in knowing that you wanted to have that as a focus, or was it just an evolution of GenCare? 

Danielle: Leon is, he is our athlete. He’s our hall of famer. He ran track and played baseball for many, many, many years. He’s our fitness enthusiast and he lives and breathes active lifestyle and he models it for all of us. And yeah, very much top down. And so, I think Leon’s always known it and you can’t help but realize how important, you know, an active lifestyle is when you are next to Leon.

Ronn: Absolutely. We all need that contagious energy. That’s, yeah, my brother.  That’s awesome. So, what role do nutrition and dining experiences play at, within the whole life living? And Danielle, what approach does Gencare take to make the meals both obviously nutritious and enjoyable? I know we talked about that a little bit. Not everyone is happy. 

Danielle: Yeah. So, it’s, you know, it’s our eat better facet, right? So, food is fuel, dining is critical. There’s the social aspect of dining and then there’s, of course, the nutritional aspect of dining. And so, we’re very proud of our dining program because it’s the first facet in the philosophy. We’re the only senior housing community in the nation that certified gluten free through the Gluten Intolerance Group. We have vegan and vegetarian offerings, we have cultural offerings, cultural halal. We’re very unique in the way we create our menus and make sure that our food is nourishing but also appetizing and looks delicious on the plate to meet the resident’s dietary needs. 

Ronn: That’s a tall order.

Danielle: It is. 

Ronn: No pun intended, right?  

Danielle: It is. It is. You can’t, you know, it’s hard if you were to eat in the same restaurant every single day, 365 days a year, you might get tired of it. But for all, you know, our residents really love the food and we get great feedback from the residents during chef chats and they tell us how wonderful the food is and you know, it’s not laden with empty calories, salt, sugar. It’s really nice. 

Ronn: Yeah, that’s awesome. The other thing is, I mean, congrats, kudos to even having case studies or success stories where people are no longer diabetic. That’s huge. I mean, even my generation, we’re like, you know, leaning in that and our doctors are all, you know, from a lot of my friends I talk to, they’re like, you need to watch what you’re doing now, you know, when we’re older. So, the fact that you guys are doing that, when people are used to their lifestyle, used to their eating choices, you know.

Danielle: Yep. Yeah. If you visit our YouTube, the GenCare Lifestyle YouTube, you’ll hear Lynn’s story. And she tells you about how she’s no longer diabetic. And it’s one of, our proud, testimonials that we’re very proud of. 

Ronn: That should be, yeah. And people should be, want to be more like, you said Lynn, was it? 

Danielle: Yes, Lynn. 

Leon: Her name is Lynn. She works, she’s living at the lodge at Eagle Ridge in Renton.  

Ronn: Love it.  

Leon: Anecdotally again, we limit, we’re very aware of sugar and how bad sugar is. It causes inflammation. Also, is bad for your health because it, you’re more apt to get cancer if you have a high sugar diet. So, we limit the amount of sugar. You also avoid sugar crashes, you know, highs and lows. And clearly, it’s a issue for diabetics or you become diabetic cause you eat too much sugar. So, we’re very aware of our sugar in our menus and diets that we present to our residents. 

Ronn: Yeah. And it’s, I mean, in my household, I’m always like, if it’s not in the house, I won’t go, I won’t seek it out. Right. So, if you’re not providing it, then maybe that’s what’s pushing people to like, okay. I’m not going to go out of my way to go get it myself. 

Danielle: Yeah.

Leon: I know. I don’t buy donuts anymore cause otherwise I’ll eat them. 

Ronn: And we miss them, but yeah, all good. 

Martin: All right. So, over the past five years, you’ve seen an increase in residents’ length of stay overall. Leon, what do you think has contributed most to this loyalty and what feedback have residents shared with you about their experience overall? 

Leon: Well, I think it’s not just a loyalty. I think it’s the quality of life that we provide them. And they know they’re moving into our communities or they don’t realize it sometimes. But the four facets help them live longer, you know, food, exercise, purpose, socialization. We have happy residents. We survey them often. And that was one of the goals of the whole life living is to live longer and better. And so, when they move in to our communities, our initial goal was to make them happier. And we know happier people and healthier people live longer.  And it seemed to play out. I had to, when I originally developed this concept after I left, as a founder and a partner and retired from Merrill Gardens, I started GenCare but I got a chance to sit back for a while cause I got a divorce and I was putting my life back together. What I would want as an ideal living situation for seniors. And I thought back to my days as a camper, you know, when I was 10, 11, 12 years old, I didn’t have to work. I got to hang around with my buddies all day. And what did we do? We ate in the dining room and the social environment at the camp. Then we went out and you know, we played, we had activities programmed for us. We were stimulated either through sports or you know, camping or doing a science, archeological trip that the camp provided for us. And we had a great time every day and we had a certain amount of time, what we call free play time, where we got to do whatever we wanted to do. So, I said, just because you’re older, you’re retired, you’re basically back to what you were when you were a kid going to camp. So, let’s make it fun and have a lifestyle like you were when you were younger. You still like to do the same stuff, essentially is do what you like, hang with other people, do interesting things and have some fun.

Martin: I love that mentality.  

Ronn: That’s huge. I mean, in some ways it’s that simple, right? And in other regards, I know like that population too, at this point they worked hard, they’ve done a lot for their lives. And the other part of that, when you’re in camp as youngster things are done for you. So, I think the seniors are no different at that. at their age group. They’re like, okay, if it’s managed for me, I will show up.  

Leon: Yeah. Yeah. 

Ronn: They don’t want to put that, I’m not speaking for everyone, but I’m sure that at this point, they’re like, we don’t need to put all the work and coordinate the parties and the events and the, if somebody does it for us, we’ll be there and they thrive in that environment. 

Leon: Yeah, they do. 

Ronn: That’s amazing. I literally have goosebumps talking about this because I just, I think it serves a purpose. I think you certainly need to be in so many other markets. I hope you do, but looking ahead, I want to hear a little bit, this is the last question I believe is, how do you envision the future for senior living and also like any new ideas or developments that we can expect to come from you guys speaking of world domination?

Leon:  Well, in general, I think the industry is still evolving. Like I said earlier, every five years there seems to be a new expectation of people, elderly who hit the market. And as an industry, we have to be nimble in order to adapt to these needs, either in providing them in the physical plant or the programming. So, to give you a prediction of what the people who are going to be looking at senior housing as residents in 10 years. Can’t totally say, you have to look at the Gen X or Gen Y and see how they evolve and how they’re going to translate in the things when they’re elderly. And certainly, technology is going to play a big part in what you provide in your communities for support. So, artificial intelligence is the big buzzword today and how we adapt that to senior housing is going to be, it’s being adapted for data collection and certainly analysis of what to do, but as far as what residents are going to want to do with it, that remains to be seen. I think as the years go on, senior housing is becoming much more sophisticated and people are accepting it. Both loved ones and potential residents as a serious option to living. And better than staying at home, sitting with a caregiver, sitting in front of a TV and being served a meal all day. And that’s your life, gives you a more well-rounded and robust experience at this stage of your life. 

Danielle: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I think personalization is key. I think expanding upon inclusivity and diversity and ensuring that we’re reflective of the world that we live in, that we are building and developing sustainable communities. It’s critical environmental friendly communities, whether it’s energy efficient building design, or it is curating, you know, local produce and local resources, is very, I believe the population will expect that. And that’s something that we are committed to delivering on. 

Ronn: That’s amazing.

Martin: Do you guys do any kind of gen care, like in like farming or like little like little garden or anything like that for them?  

Danielle: We have gardens. We do. We have gardens in most of our communities. Some of them are urban. The space is tight, but we still have our raised planter beds but we do resident’s garden. They grow vegetables, herbs that we can use in our kitchens.  And yeah, they’re definitely a part of that process. And then we also partner with farms that are here in the local Pacific Northwest. And so, we’ll have our culinary teams visit the farms and see where the food is made or harvested and really try to connect with the local sources.

Martin: Yeah. And a little farm to table experience too. 

Danielle: Absolutely. 

Leon: Yeah, exactly. 

Martin: Beautiful. So, Ronn, any final comments before we get ready to wrap this up?  

Ronn: No, I just want to say thank you guys. I’ve learned a lot about, your company and your mission and the whole life living concept. I think it’s amazing. So, thank you. 

Danielle: Thank you. 

Leon: Yeah, thank you for having us. And we’re excited about our programming and all our staff. I got to say, people who work for GenC9are are very excited about our programming and a lot of people who work with us as our employees are here because they’re committed to our lifestyle.

Danielle: Yeah. Absolutely. If you talk about purpose, we need purpose at work too, and there’s nothing better than working for a company that’s as mission driven as we are. 

Martin: Yes. So, Leon and Danielle, thank you both so much for sharing your insights and passion for re-imagining senior living, the whole life living concept, the care you put into every aspect of your communities is truly inspiring. 

Leon: Well, thank you for having us. We enjoyed our time with you. 

Danielle: Yeah. Thank you. 

Martin: So, for our listeners, make sure to learn more at Gencarelifestyle.com and their transformative approach to senior living, check out their communities and their whole life living program. Stay tuned for more inspiring episodes here on MultifamilyPodcast.com powered by ApartmentSEO.com. Make sure to claim your free marketing analysis today. Until next time, keep innovating and building communities that make a difference. Bye y’all.

Ronn: Cheers.